SSN is a digest of the day's soccer/football/futbol articles with a focus on the top European leagues and the United States National Team. Below, you’ll find links to articles and video, as well as additional features and commentary. We locate the top news of the day so you can stay updated with ease.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Loads today as Sid Lowe and Eduardo Alvarez preview the La Liga season which will not begin as scheduled due to a strike by the players, big night in Europe for Clint Dempsey as Deuce bags a deuce in Fulham's win, not as good for Bocanegra and Rangers, Phil Ball provides his take on the Barca/Real Madrid rivalry, Friday MLS Forecast looks at Chicago Fire's new draw record, in England Arsenal host Liverpool and Sunderland host Newcastle in the Tyne-Wear Derby, The Joy of Six is False Dawns, Jon Carter Rewinds to 1989, Robbie Keane touches down in Los Angeles, Friday's rumors, Grant Wahl's Mailbag and much more!!

It should have been a Super Sunday. The season was due to kick off with Spain's other clásico between two of only three clubs to have spent their entire histories in the first division. At 6pm, it was Real Madrid v Athletic Bilbao, the latter under the new management of the fascinating Marcelo Bielsa. Then, at 8pm, there was a chance to see La Liga's latest force, Qatari-owned Málaga, with nine new signings and the league's third biggest budget, take on Barcelona at home. And finally, at 10pm, Real Betis were to make their top-flight return – against city rivals Sevilla in the most passionate derby in the country.

When Cesc Fábregas left Arsenal for Barcelona this week the Premier League lost the finest midfielder ever to play in English football: discuss. Which is roughly what a group of football writers were doing at a pre-season dinner when the subject of outstanding midfield players was raised.

The consensus was that in the 19 seasons since the First Division clubs broke away to form the Premier League the two best midfielders have been another Arsenal player, Patrick Vieira, and Manchester United's Paul Scholes, both of whom have just retired. Fábregas was almost up there with them but he is 24 and now that he is back at the Camp Nou something even better may be yet to come.

Arsenal host Liverpool on the second weekend of the new Premier League season, while Sunderland and Newcastle meet in the Wear-Tyne derby. Chelsea welcome West Brom to Stamford Bridge, Blackburn travel to Aston Villa, Everton begin their campaign against QPR, and new-boys Swansea host their first match when Wigan visit Wales. On Sunday, Manchester City make the short trip to Bolton, Norwich take on Stoke, and Wolves and Fulham meet at Molineux.

The 2009 Bundesliga champions Wolfsburg can return to the top of the table when they face Borussia Monchengladbach.

Defending champions Borussia Dortmund will look to bounce straight back from their defeat to Hoffenheim last weekend, while Bayern Munich will try to build on their first league win of the season against Wolfsburg last weekend when they host struggling Hamburg.

Stuttgart will look to maintain their unbeaten start to the season at home to Bayer Leverkusen on Saturday, while the league's newcomers, Augsburg, go in search of their first win in the top flight after back-to-back draws when they welcome Hoffenheim to the Augsburg Arena.

Long before the days of Glazer rule at Old Trafford and the mysterious Red Knights, another in the United realm had attempted to take control of the club in 1989. English businessman Michael Knighton had a £20 million offer accepted and, on August 18, appeared on the pitch in full kit ahead of the 1989-90 season opener to revel in the moment of his career. However, it did not end as he would have liked.

Republic of Ireland striker Robbie Keane touched down in Tinseltown on Thursday after completing a transfer from English Premier League team Tottenham Hotspur to the Major League Soccer’s Los Angeles Galaxy. Keane, the team’s most significant signing since David Beckham, will make his debut Saturday after vowing to give MLS’ most visible franchise the elusive championship it craves.

Barcelona lifted the Supercopa trophy at precisely one o'clock on Thursday morning, with a stadium full of dancing Catalans, quite a few tourists (it's August, Spanish holidays) and a conspicuous absence of Real Madrid players, down in the dressing-rooms cooling off (physically and figuratively) and probably wondering just how they can ever get the better of their current nemesis.

Tottenham thumped Hearts 5-0 in the first leg of their Europa League play-off tie at Tynecastle. Bundesliga side Schalke were stunned by HJK Helsinki, slumping to a 2-0 loss in Finland. Teemu Pukki was the hero for the home side with two goals to his name. Fulham eased to a 3-0 win over Juande Ramos' Dnipro. Aaron Hughes broke the deadlock before a brace from Clint Dempsey capped a fine night for Martin Jol's men. Affluent French side PSG romped to a 4-0 hammering of Differdange courtesy of strikes from Kevin Gameiro, Jean-Christophe Bahebeck, Ceara and Jeremy Menez. Rangers looked on course for a promising result at Maribor when Juanma put them in front. But Maribor fought back to win 2-1 as Agim Ibraimi and Etien Velikonja bagged.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

With gross debts of £515m and annual interest payments of £45m it looks like a no-brainer for Manchester United's owners, the ultra-secretive Glazer family, to try to raise a large sum of money with a partial flotation in Asia.

Initial estimates suggest the Americans could bring in anywhere between £400m and £600m for selling off 25 to 30 per cent of the club's parent company.

That would value the club at around £1.7bn and not only potentially help reduce the bond the Glazers took out in January 2010 but pay down any other private debts the Glazers have.

New Rangers signing Carlos Bocanegra says he just couldn’t turn down the chance to join Ally McCoist’s American revolution. The defender, signed from St Etienne, joins international team-mates Mauric Edu and Alejandro Bedoya at the Scottish champions and is likely to feature against Maribor in tonight’s Europa League play-off first leg.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Both Bayern Munich and Villarreal will look to seal entry into the qualifying stages of the UEFA Champions League by beating Zurich and Odense respectively. Villarreal face a tricky trip to Odense while Wisla Krakow host Cypriot champions APOEL Nicosia, Maccabi Haifa host Genk and Malmo go to Dinamo Zagreb.

Barcelona knows it will have to cope with a frustrated but energized Real Madrid team if it hopes to win its first Spanish Supercup against its fiercest rival in Wednesday’s return leg of the series.

Madrid dominated Sunday’s 2-2 draw and created the best scoring opportunities but the team was eventually undone by the individual talent of the Spanish champions, notably David Villa and Lionel Messi who scored Barcelona’s goals in the first leg.

Non-league sides Ascot United and Wembley FC will kick off this season's FA Cup on Friday night, with the game being streamed to a potential audience of 700 million people on Facebook. Budweiser said that the match, which kicks off at 1945 BST on Friday, will only be available to those of legal drinking age and users must have 'liked' the Budweiser page to gain access.

Arsenal secured a narrow 1-0 advantage against Udinese in Tuesday night's Champions League play-off first leg at the Emirates Stadium. Lyon boast a healthier advantage after downing Rubin Kazan 3-1 in their tie, although the French side needed to fight back from an early deficit. Czech champions Viktoria Plzen are in an even better position after recording a 3-1 away win over a FC Copenhagen side who last term became the first Danish side to reach the knockout stage of the Champions League before losing to Chelsea in the last 16. FC Twente and Benfica shared a 2-2 draw in their first-leg tie.

As Robbie Keane fulfilled the latest of his never ending list of 'dream moves' by joining LA Galaxy, his army of Irish cynics unleashed a predictably vitriolic tirade in the direction of their nation's all-time record goal scorer.

Arsene Wenger has urged Arsenal to shrug off the loss of Cesc Fabregas and pull together to see off Udinese in their Champions League play-off on Tuesday night. Lyon host Rubin Kazan with the hosts again without key central defender Cris. The Brazilian missed Les Gones' second Ligue 1 game of the season at the weekend, a 1-1 draw at home to Ajaccio, with a thigh problem and he will not have recovered in time to face the Russians at the Stade Gerland. Tuesday night's other ties see FC Twente host Benfica, Bate Borisov meet Sturm Graz and Viktoria Plzen go to FC Copenhagen.

One of my favourite pieces of football writing is by the splendid Argentine coach Angel Cappa, a romantic of the old school, reflecting on his good fortune at being in Spain to watch Brazil’s midfield in the 1982 World Cup.

“The ball arrived in this zone [midfield],” he wrote, “and would then disappear to reappear in the form of a rabbit and also a dove and then was hidden again from anguished opponents who would look for it in the most unlikely places without being able to find it….

"The crowd, myself included, looked at the watch with the intention of making time stand still because we all wanted the game to last for ever.”

Somehow I doubt he thinks about this day very often, but I once played football against Nuri Sahin - and won. It's not like we were playing in opposing teams in some scribes- versus-soccer-stars charity extravaganza. No, it was a proper one-on-one: just him and me and a ball and one of those "Torwand" contraptions. (A target wall with two holes.)

Real Madrid and Barcelona shared four goals in a thrilling 2-2 draw in the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup.

Having hogged the headlines for a number of bad-tempered clashes last season, the two played out a game refreshingly void of late challenges and mass-brawls. Another surprise saw Real adopt the role of the cultivated passing side out of the two, opening the scoring through Mesut Ozil and then levelling through Xabi Alonso.

Off The Ball never rests in its mission to scratch around the underbelly of professional football to find the most bizarre, humorous and inexplicable stories. This week, Balotelli-plagued Roberto Mancini says he needs to see a psychologist, Mexico's Omar Arellano poos his pants during a game, Marseille striker Andre-Pierre Gignac is packed off to fat camp and Turkish side Sivasspor FC daub themselves in the blood of a slaughtered sheep.

There was disappointment for some of the Premier League's big guns as the season got underway, while holders Manchester United were made to scrap for three points. Reigning champions United managed to bag a maximum haul with a 2-1 win at West Brom but only after a Shane Long equaliser gave them a scare. Elsewhere, Arsenal and Chelsea dropped two points at Newcastle and Stoke respectively, with both encounters ending in goalless draws. And QPR endured a tough introduction to the top-flight, suffering a 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Bolton.

Cesc Fábregas has signed a five-year contract with Barcelona, finally sealing his departure from Arsenal, the Spanish club has announced. The midfielder, who has had a €200m (over £175m) buy-out clause inserted in his contract, arrived at Camp Nou on Monday morning after undergoing a medical and is now set to be presented to local media. Barcelona posted a comment on their official Twitter feed which read: "Cesc has signed his contract which ties him to Barcelona until 2016. The buy-out clause is 200 million euros."

Given the lavish three-month build up and incessant hype I expected myself to be near-catatonic by this point on Sunday night, gently frothing at the mouth due to the frantic, awe-inspiring quality offered up by the league that isn't shy in declaring itself the best in the world. Yet the best league in the known universe - better even than The Human League or The League of Gentlemen - served up a whopping 13 goals, three 0-0 draws and two red cards. In fact, all it did do was reinforce a raft of long-held stereotypes: